Luol Deng, a Sudan-born, Brixton-raised, American-employed GB international, will represent the Chicago Bulls in London, the city he considers home, for the first time in a pre-season friendly in October. The question bouncing around the sports business world is whether he might soon make it a permanent stay.

The NBA have long speculated that the day is at hand when their 30-team league will expand to include a four-team division based in Europe, a notion that was dismissed as far-fetched when first mooted by NBA commissioner David Stern four years ago.

Given the global success of basketball generally, and the NBA in particular, that prediction looks far less fanciful today.

The major stumbling block - adequate arenas - is in the process of being hurdled thanks to the O2 Arena in London and Berlin's O2 World, built and owned by the sports conglomerate AEG which has strong ties with the NBA. Similar arenas are at the planning stage in Madrid and Rome and talks about such projects are ongoing in at least 10 other major European cities.

'There were no NBA-quality arenas in Europe until a couple of years ago. None,' says Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, the company that owns the O2 in London's Docklands. 'You're going to see a huge arena spurt in Europe. I predict that you are going to see 12 new, great arenas built in world-class cities all over Europe.'

To paraphrase the marketing slogan from a popular movie about another quintessentially American sport, baseball's Field of Dreams - 'If you build it, they will come.'

The question, as the NBA wrestle with the impact of the current global economic crisis, is will they come and, if so, when and where? 'In the next two years, one of the leagues is going to put a team on different soil and it is going to be revolutionary... It's going to happen,' Leiweke exclusively told Observer Sport last week, clearly believing that it will happen sooner rather than later.

'If the US economy is in the tank, then the league will be looking more globally than ever for economic opportunity, to diversify their risk,' said one NBA team executive. 'They may have to cut back in certain areas, but they won't cut back on global initiatives.'

'This is not a new objective,' said Stern when asked about the subject earlier this year. 'What we have always said was if there was an appropriate arena structure, if there was appropriate fan affinity and there was a pricing structure necessary for a team to compete in the NBA, it would seem to be an opportunity for us to grow.

'The idea is not about having one team or even two teams. There would have to be a critical mass and that is something we continue to watch. We are watching various markets on a global scale in a very serious way, more seriously than we ever have before. It is a continuing viability study.'

And the viability of European expansion is more plausible than ever. 'It's going to happen,' says Leiweke. 'We are learning that we are a global economy, global communications platform, we are a global entertainment platform and global sports is going to follow that.'

Initial opposition to such a plan threw up numerous red herrings such as logistics and player opposition. Yet, the powerful NBA Players' Union is certain to back any proposal that creates 75 new jobs for its members and, given the hardship currently endured during the NBA's 82-game regular season, careful scheduling would permit four European teams to feature on the fixture list with the minimum of added inconvenience.

More relevantly, for such expansion to proceed, the NBA need to be satisfied that potential ticket revenue is in place and, far more importantly, that owners willing to pay around $300m-plus (£200m) to buy a franchise, as well as the necessary television deals, are in situ.

'I think we need to develop markets to a place where the country in which a team might be located can generate more than $10m from the market,' said Stern of the requisite television contracts. 'And that is not particularly far-fetched given the rise of some of our TV deals.'

In short, the dream, hypothetical NBA 'marriage' might involve the league selling an expansion franchise in London or Rome to a media mogul such as Rupert Murdoch or Silvio Berlusconi who could bring the necessary television revenue and, while $10m is currently a huge sum for a British broadcaster to consider paying for basketball rights, it remains, in comparative major sporting terms, chicken feed.

The more complex issue surrounds fan interest. The NBA sold out two exhibition games at the O2 over the past two seasons - more than 19,000 tickets on each occasion - within days and with zero marketing or publicity budget. While professional British teams routinely play in front of crowds in the low hundreds, the success of the NBA has led the Americans to believe there is the necessary corporate and rank-and-file fan interest in Britain. NBA merchandise, such as caps and shirts, is already hugely popular among Britain's inner-city youth.

'I have always believed that there is a huge opportunity for a major winter indoor sport in western Europe,' said Peter Moore, Liverpool-born president of computer games manufacturer EA Sports, a major NBA marketing partner. 'But the lack of world-class arenas has always been a problem. As we see investments in facilities like the O2 Arena in London, that barrier is disappearing.

'We believe interest in basketball in Europe is still very much on the rise. The prominence of European players in the NBA has given rise to increased interest in their home countries.'

Jordi Bertomeu, chief executive of the Euroleague, the world's leading league outside the NBA, has pointed out potential challenges such as wildly fluctuating exchange rates, varying employment laws and the cultural gulf between the US, where sport is viewed solely as entertainment, and Europe, where it runs far deeper into the social fabric.

However, the NBA plough on with their 'viability study'. Those close to the 66-year-old Stern, the man who is credited with having saved the NBA in the 1980s and created a global phenomenon, speak of his desire to leave European expansion as his major legacy to world sport.

How the NBA's European expansion could work

While London and Berlin are considered automatic choices for what is predicted will be a four-team European division of the NBA, the identity of the other two teams is a more complex issue.

Real Madrid have already made a presentation to the NBA on the subject and CSKA Moscow have discussed becoming the league's official marketing partner in Russia. The NBA would not poach existing clubs but would create entirely new expansion franchises. In European basketball there is talk of an 'arms race' aimed at delivering arenas first in order to compete for such a spot.

Madrid and Rome, where arena proposals are advanced, are most often referenced, but Barcelona and Milan may be logical challengers to their domestic rivals.

The NBA remain intrigued by the growing economies of eastern Europe - specifically the markets of Istanbul and Moscow - but, as is the case with Athens in basketball-crazy Greece, the generally low per capita income and unpredictable political climates make those nations unlikely contenders.

In practice, the hypothetical London Lions, Berlin Bandits, Madrid Toros and Rome Wolves would become fully functioning members of the NBA.

Expansion to 34 teams would mean a restructuring of the NBA's current divisional structure, something that happens every time new clubs are admitted, but the major logistical challenge would be scheduling.

Given the coast-to-coast journey of 3,000 miles, NBA teams in the Eastern Conference currently spend up to two weeks on 'road trips' in which they may, for example, play five teams on the west coast or four teams in Texas/Oklahoma before flying home for a series of home games.

West-coast American NBA teams could, therefore, visit Europe to play three or four games, fly back west for an east-coast 'swing' and, finally, return home. Meanwhile, a London franchise could spend two weeks at a time in the US, fulfilling away fixtures.